William Phillips (editor)
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William Phillips (November 14, 1907 – September 13, 2002) was an American editor, writer and public intellectual who co-founded
Life
Phillips was born in New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Taken back to Russia from ages 1 to 4, he was raised in East Bronx. Phillips earned a B.A. from City College, which he called "the poor boy's steppingstone to the world." There he studied philosophy and came to admire the modernist movement in literature. He also took graduate literature courses and taught as an instructor at New York University.[2]
In 1933, he married Edna Greenblatt, who worked as a high school teacher. She died in 1985. In 1995, Phillips married Edith Kurzweil, who ultimately succeeded him as editor of the magazine.
Editorship of Partisan Review
As a young man, and up until the time of the Depression, Phillips was apolitical. Stirred by the new Marxist ideas, he turned to the Left; and in 1934 began attending meetings of the
Rahv was often credited with being the more expansive thinker; Phillips called him a "manic impressive." But Phillips is generally regarded [by whom?]as having provided the editorial quality, stamina, and consistency that kept the publication alive for so many years, despite its modest circulation (never more than 15,000). Phillips enlisted a distinguished staff that included Mary McCarthy and Dwight Macdonald.
In the 1950s, Lillian Hellman complained that Phillips had not spearheaded the defense of intellectuals who were investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The magazine had, in fact, editorialized against Joseph McCarthy. But Phillips also criticized writers and artists on the left who had been slow to recognize the Stalinist oppression of free expression and political dissent in the Soviet Union.
By the 1960s, Rahv had scaled back his participation in the day-to-day work of editing the journal. However, when the board of directors opted to list Phillips as editor-in-chief, Rahv sued and won the right to continue to see all submissions. In 1969, Rahv resigned to start his own journal, and Phillips gained principal editorial control of Partisan Review, which he maintained until shortly before his death.
Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM)
In 1967 he co-founded the
References
- ^ Guardian obituary: William Phillips, 75
- ^ William Phillips, A Partisan View (NY: Stein and Day, 2004, p. 27
- ^ William Phillips, A Partisan View (NY: Stein and Day, 2004, p. 27
- ^ History of The Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (CCLM) Archived 2009-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Pauline Uchmanowicz, "A Brief History of CCLM/CLMP," The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 44, No. 1/2, Spring - Summer, 2003, pp. 70-87.
External links
- New York Times obituary of Phillips
- Telegraph obituary of Phillips
- Independent obituary of Phillips[dead link]
- Series of tributes to Phillips on the occasion of the publication of the last issue of the Partisan Review